Smallpools
Tuesday night's show at The Basement East is part of a victory lap for the 10th anniversary of Lovetap!, the debut LP from synthpop group Smallpools. But fans have another reason to snatch up tickets: It could be the last time to see the band play live, as lead singer Sean Scanlon tells the Scene in a recent interview.
“It's funny — we're just a bunch of dudes … in a van, again, playing the same songs, like life didn't move at all,” Scanlon says. “But it sure did.”
For this tour, Smallpools is playing the entire album in order, with a few favorites from the rest of their discography and at least two ’80s covers to finish out the set list. Scanlon points out that Lovetap! is their best-known album, and the one that’s most indicative of their sound. Before it came out, the band had already attracted widespread attention with their 2013 self-titled EP, which circulated on Tumblr, and breakout single “Dreaming,” which was chosen for the soundtrack to FIFA 14. “Dreaming” is still a favorite of fans and band alike.
“‘Dreaming’ never gets old,” Scanlon says, “because, just something about that song — the place just goes haywire, which is so fun to watch from my perspective.”
The Lovetap! song “Killer Whales” has remained a fan fave, and crowds have been known to respond to it by turning the venue into a sea of inflatable whales. Another favorite for Scanlon to perform is also from that album: “9 to 5,” more of a deep cut that reveals some of the die-hard fans in the crowd and allows him to show off his acoustic guitar chops.
The bouncy synthpop sound is pretty consistent across the band’s records, though songs like 2017’s “Passenger Side” balance a fun vibe with a crushing lyric: “I feel that you might have always been right / And we may not find partners in crime / Better in life than we've had this whole time.” On the other hand, recent single “Swayze” (yes, as in Patrick) packs in the pop culture references on an upbeat love song. After their most recent Basement East show, the band walked off the stage to “Hungry Eyes,” a song from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack that was one of Scanlon’s favorites as a child.
Over the past 12 years, Smallpools has toured extensively, including a slew of college dates (like the four times I saw them in 2014 and 2015 when I was a student at The Ohio State University). If fans didn’t discover the band online, they may have seen Smallpools opening for the likes of Neon Trees, Grouplove, twenty one pilots, Walk the Moon or Two Door Cinema Club.
“When we were opening for all these great bands and having these great opportunities, I didn't expect that people were paying attention when we're out there playing our few songs — not sounding as big as the headliner and not really knowing how to put on a show yet,” Scanlon says. “It was crazy because whenever we went out on our own tours, everyone was telling us, ‘I saw you at Neon Trees, I saw you at Grouplove, I saw you at twenty one pilots.’ So it was like, ‘Wow, touring really works.’ And people pay attention, and they become fans for life.”
The music also seems to find new people, as around half of each audience is seeing them for the first time at each show, Scanlon observes. These days, music discovery looks a lot different than it did in 2013 when the band formed.
“There's so much music nowadays compared to when we came out — it's probably like 10 times the amount of songs that come out [now] every week on Spotify, and everyone is trying to get seen and heard, and it's tough,” says Scanlon. “I'll be surprised how amazing a song I find is, or a few songs, and how little that band is a presence yet in the world. ... It's really hard these days to move the needle on stuff. I wouldn't know how to go about starting a band these days.”
A number of the bands Smallpools opened for split up or took a hiatus since the mid-2010s. Notably, Neon Trees and Two Door Cinema Club have recently begun touring again. Smallpools, however, has stayed together the whole time, putting out three full-length albums, dozens of singles and several EPs. Just when they thought the band was going to fizzle out, they’d get a new opportunity.
“It always brought fun and supported us,” Scanlon says. “Every time we thought we were kind of down on our luck, we'd make a new song or two that we liked, or we’d get a new deal that floated us through making an album, or something.”
That said, the band has reached a plateau, and it’s time to take a break and find new inspiration. The band members are now spread out around the country, and Nashville-residing Scanlon isn’t sure what’s next for him. It may not be musical at all.
“It's definitely been a long, fun and fulfilling chapter of my life so far, so we'll see. Sorry, I don't have the most answers for the future, but that's what makes it fun.”
